CHAPTER VII
THE PICNIC
The man who had brought the news about the runaway ram, stood on thegravel drive near the porch, breathing hard, for he had run very fastto give the warning. He caught his breath, and then said again:
"The old ram is loose! He butted down the fence and got out. He'sheaded this way. What'll we do?"
"Children! Into the house with you--quick!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Oh! Oh!" cried Flossie. "Let me hide! Let me hide!"
"Pooh! I'm not afraid of a ram!" declared Freddie. "If I had my fireengine unpacked, I'd squirt water on him!"
"Better not try that, little fat fireman," said his father with alaugh. "Into the house with you, son. Your mother will look afteryou."
Nan had already started from the porch, leading Flossie, who keptlooking back over her shoulder. From behind the hedge came a cry thatsounded like:
"Baa! Baa! Baa!"
"There he comes!" exclaimed Nan. "Come on in, Bert and Harry," shebegged the two boy cousins, who were peering eagerly down the road.
"I'm going to watch 'em catch him," said Bert.
"Better not let him see you," advised Harry, the country cousin. "Thatold ram is a hard hitter."
"Is there really any danger?" asked Mr. Bobbsey of his farmer-brother.
"Well, the old ram is pretty rough, I must say," answered UncleDaniel, "and most of the men on the farm are afraid of him."
"He's coming right this way, I tell you!" exclaimed the hired man whohad brought the news.
"Why should he head this way?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"Come along and I'll tell you," his brother promised. "You childrenhad better go into the house," he advised. "Yes, you too, Bert andHarry," he went on, as he saw his own son and Bert following him andMr. Bobbsey. "No telling what notions old Upsetter will take."
"Is his name Upsetter?" asked Bert.
"It is," replied his uncle. "I call him that because he upsets so manythings. He used to be a pet when he was little," he continued, "andthat's what makes him come to the house now, whenever he gets loose.My wife got in the habit of feeding him salt, which all sheep likevery much. I guess he must remember that. But Aunt Sarah wouldn't daresalt him now. Go back into the house, boys, and we men folks will lookafter the ram."
The sounds were nearer now:
"Baa! Baa! Baa!"
"Oh, he's coming!" cried Flossie, who stood with her nose pressed flatagainst a window near the porch.
"Had we better go in?" asked Bert of Harry.
"We really had," answered his cousin.
Uncle Daniel, Mr. Bobbsey and the hired man found some heavy stickswith which to scare the ram if he came too close. The big sheep wasnot yet in sight, though he could be heard bleating.
"Up this way," directed Uncle Daniel. "We can head him off and drivehim into the barnyard, perhaps. Then I can shut him up until I havethe fence mended that he knocked down."
"Why not get some salt for him?" suggested Mr. Bobbsey. "If he getssome to eat it may make him gentle, and then you could slip a ropearound him and tie him up."
"That's a good idea!" cried the farmer. "Sam, please go to the houseand get some salt," he directed.
Before the hired man returned, the ram had run into the drivewayleading to the barn. Just as Uncle Daniel had said, the ram was headedfor the house, which he must have remembered as a pleasant place eversince the days when he was a baby lamb. But now the ram was big andstrong, and not very good-natured.
He stood for a moment, looking at Uncle Daniel, Mr. Bobbsey and thehired man. Then, pawing the ground with his fore feet, and loweringand shaking his head with its big horns, the ram started forwardagain.
"Oh, he's going to butt papa!" cried Flossie, who could see, from thewindow, what was going on.
"Papa will get out of the way, dear," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Don'tworry."
On came the ram, and then Uncle Daniel, taking the salt from the hiredman, scattered some of it on the ground in front of the big sheep.
"That will stop him, I think," said the farmer. And indeed it did.Sheep, and all cattle, are very fond of licking up salt from theground, and they will go a long way to find it. It keeps cattlehealthy. The old ram, as soon as he smelled the salt, began licking itup with his tongue.
He paid no more attention to the men standing in front of him, thoughif the salt had not been there he probably would have run at them, andknocked them down with his big curved horns.
"Now's our chance!" whispered Mr. Bobbsey, as if the ram couldunderstand what was said. "Get a rope and we can tie him up."
"I'll get one," offered the hired man, and when he came back with theclothes line Uncle Daniel made a loop in one end, such as the cowboyson the Western plains make when they lasso cattle.
And while the ram was busy licking up the salt, Uncle Daniel tossedthe noose of the rope around the sheep's head, and, in another second,he and Mr. Bobbsey pulled it tight.
"Oh, they've caught him! They've caught him!" cried Nan, who stoodnear Flossie at the window.
"Come on out and look at him!" said Bert.
"No, no!" objected his mother, as the two boy cousins started from theroom.
"Oh, I guess there's no danger now, if they have a rope on him," saidAunt Sarah.
"I'll go 'long with you," offered Freddie, "and I'd squirt water onthat ram from my fire engine--if I had it unpacked."
"You stay right here with me," advised his mother, putting her armsaround him.
Bert and Harry went out to look at the captured ram. The animal wasnot ugly now. Perhaps the salt made him good-natured. And he was soonled away, and tied up in a stable until his pasture fence could bemended.
"My! What a lot of excitement!" exclaimed Nan, when it was all over."Nothing like this happened when we were on the houseboat."
"You forget the make-believe ghost," said Harry, with a laugh, for hehad helped solve that mystery.
"Oh, that's so," agreed Nan. "That was exciting for a while."
The Bobbsey twins, as well as their father and mother, to say nothingof Dinah, were so tired from their long railroad journey that theywent to bed early that night. The sun was shining brightly when theyawakened next morning. Harry and Bert slept in the same room, and whenthe country boy arose from bed he went to the window to look out.
"Oh, dear! The sun's shining!" he exclaimed.
"Well, isn't that a good thing?" Bert wanted to know.
"Maybe," admitted Harry. "But if it had been raining we might havegone fishing. As it is, I shall have to work."
"What doing?" Bert wanted to know.
"Help pick apples in the orchard. We are shipping them away this year,and they have to be picked, and packed in barrels."
"I'll help you," offered Bert, and, after breakfast, the two boys wentout to the big orchard, where Uncle Daniel and some of his men alreadywere busy.
The apples were picked by men standing on long ladders that reached upinto the trees. Each filled a canvas bag with apples. These bags hungaround their necks, and when one was full, the man came down theladder with it. This was so the apples would not be bruised, for abruised apple rots very quickly, and even one rotten apple in a barrelfull, will soon make many bad ones.
"Can we pick apples on a ladder?" asked Bert.
"No, that's a little too dangerous for small boys," said Uncle Daniel."But you and Harry may pick those you can reach from the ground. Someof the tree limbs are very low, and you won't have any trouble. Takesome of the bags to put the apples in. Don't bruise them."
Harry and Bert were soon busy, picking off as many apples as theycould reach. When their bags were filled, they emptied them carefullyin a wooden bin, and from that bin Uncle Daniel sorted the apples intobarrels, which were "headed up" ready to be taken to the city.
Nan had gone over to the home of Mabel Herold, the country girl, andFlossie and Freddie found many things to amuse them about the farm.Later on they came out to the orchard, and picked up apples from theground.
"I'll help fill Bert's bag, and you can help Harry," said Freddie toFlossie.
"No, little fat fireman," said Harry, using the pet name his unclecalled Freddie. "The apples on the ground are called 'windfalls.' Thewind blows them down, and they get crushed and bruised by falling onthe hard dirt, or stones. It would not do to put them in with the goodhand-picked apples."
"But what do you do with all those on the ground?" asked Bert, forthere were a great many of them.
"Send them to the cider-mill, or feed them to the pigs," said Harry."The grunters and squeakers don't mind bruised apples."
The children spent nearly all day in the shady orchard, until UncleDaniel said Bert and Harry had done enough work for the time.
"Then let's get our poles and go fishing," suggested Harry.
They did go, but got no bites. Harry said that morning was the besttime to fish.
When Flossie and Freddie became tired of picking apples up from theground, they found an old swing, and took turns in this, having lotsof fun.
Snoop and Snap enjoyed their life in the country. Snoop did not go farfrom the house. There was another cat there, and the two soon becamegreat friends. Snap also found other dogs with whom he could romp andplay in the long meadow grass.
Mrs. Bobbsey and Aunt Sarah spent many hours talking over matters ofinterest to them, while Dinah, and Martha, who was Aunt Sarah's cook,spent most of their time in the kitchen, making good things to eat.
"'Cause dem chilluns suttinly does eat a turrible lot!" exclaimedDinah, as she finished making several pies.
Picking the apples kept Uncle Daniel and his men busy for a number ofdays. Harry had to help, for everyone on a farm has to work, and Bertalways lent his cousin a hand. But there were times when they wereallowed a play-spell. Sometimes Tom Mason, another country boy, wouldcome over, and, when the work was done, the three boys would go off tohave good times together.
One or two days it rained, and then nothing could be done out of doorsin the way of farm work. During one of the rainy days Bert and Harrywent fishing.
"We'll be sure to get plenty of bites to-day," Harry said, as theystarted off with their poles and lines, well protected from theweather by rubber boots and coats.
"I hope we catch a lot of fish," said Bert.
But they caught only two little sun-fish, which Harry threw back intothe creek, as they were too small to keep.
"I guess we'll have to wait for a sunny day," sighed Harry, as theystarted home. "I thought rain was good fishing-weather, but it doesn'tseem to be."
"Never mind, we had a good time, anyhow." Bert answered.
When the two boys reached the farmhouse, they found Flossie, Freddie,Nan and Mabel Herold sitting in the dining-room, all talking at once,it seemed.
"And we'll take five baskets of lunch," Freddie was saying, "and myfire engine is unpacked now, so I can take that with us, and I'llsquirt water on snakes and--and other things."
"Oh, snakes!" cried Mabel. "I hope we don't see any of the horridthings!"
"I'm not afraid!" boasted Freddie.
"Maybe there won't be any," suggested Nan.
"Well, I'm going to take my doll, anyhow," said Flossie.
"What's this all about?" asked Bert. "Are you going somewhere?"
"Picnic!" exclaimed Flossie. "We're going to have a picnic!"
"I'm going!" added Freddie, as though he was afraid of being left.
"We all are," added Nan.
"First I heard about it," Harry said, with a laugh.
"We planned it while you and Bert were off fishing," spoke his mother."The children are going to take their lunch to the woods in a day ortwo, as soon as the weather clears."
A few days later the sun came out from behind the clouds, the rainceased falling and with joyous shouts and laughter the Bobbsey twins,cousin Harry, and some country boys and girls, who had been invited,went off on a woodland picnic.